EXCERPT: “On a whim last fall, Loren Schirber paid $65,000 for a 3-acre strip of land on St. Paul’s east side that looks like a useless patch of broken-up blacktop and overgrown weeds. But he has a vision for the plot: an entire cooperative neighborhood of tiny houses with 52 units, gardens, chickens, a community center and a dog run. Before construction on the ‘East Yard Cooperative’ can begin, however, Schirber has some big hurdles to overcome. For starters, the land is bordered by two active rail tracks — locals know it ‘Railroad Island’ . . . The houses Schirber wants to build would likely feel the trains’ impact more. They’re tiny: between 280 and 530 square feet, plus a sleeping loft . . . At a recent public interest meeting, east side residents like Paris Yarbrough raised another concern: gentrification. ‘People want to talk about tiny homes. We’re losing affordable units at an alarming rate. So where are these people going to go?’ Yarbrough asked. ‘They’re not going to go in tiny homes because the average east sider can’t live in a tiny home.’ While technically affordable, Yarbrough said a tiny house is impractical for many people in the area who have blended, multigenerational family. She fears these new, trendy tiny houses will attract outsiders with more money than the rest of the neighborhood.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2gqYY1L

EXCERPT: “Affordable housing advocates are closely watching a package of bills currently under consideration by California lawmakers that would invest billions of dollars in helping to alleviate the state’s severe housing crisis. For years, California residents have struggled to afford surging real estate and rental prices in many of the country’s most expensive housing markets. Nearly one-third of California renters pay more than 50 percent of their income toward rent. If passed, the bills would create a permanent $300 million-a-year fund for affordable housing, streamline the approval process for housing construction in cities and authorize a $3 billion bond for the 2018 ballot, the first housing bond in California for over a decade.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2wN1iak

EXCERPT: “Edina requires affordable housing to be part of multifamily developments. But the companies behind a plan to build a pair high-end condo towers near Southdale are considering whether building affordable units at another site would be good enough for the city. The option of additional, affordable housing at a separate site is one of the options being considered by Estelle Edina developers Ryan Cos. US Inc. and Arcadia . . . The project has gotten some pushback from officials already, and the affordable-housing aspect may be another flashpoint. Some City Council members prefer affordable components to be part of the core project.” FULLSTORY:

EXCERPT: According to a recent report by Abodo, housing costs devour at least 30 percent of the income of about 21 million renters in America. The latter figure represents about half of the nation’s renters. Abodo analyzed U.S. Census data for its study. Broken down by generation, Abodo, it shows that about 47 percent of Millennial renters face a housing cost burden. For Baby Boomers, the millstone is heavier at 49 percent. The least rental-oppressed are Gen Xers, according to Abodo, at 44 percent. Locally, Millenials are faring slightly better, and the Baby Boomer generation is faring slightly worse. ‘At a city level,’ says Abodo spokesperson Sam Radbil, ‘we found that in Minneapolis more than 40.1 percent of Millennials are spending at least 30 percent of their income on rent. And 44.6 percent of Gen Xers and 50.1 percent of Baby Boomers are doing the same.’ Believe it or not, the percentage for Millennials is actually ‘a pretty good sign for the city,’ according to Radbil. With about 40 percent of its Millennials spending 30 percent on rent, Minneapolis ranks 94th (out of 100) among the most cost-burdened cities for that age cohort. The website’s study could not come at a more important time. Minneapolis city staff recently released its own report on housing stability in Minnesota’s largest city. The stats show if Minneapolis isn’t already in an affordable housing crisis, then it’s on the cusp of one.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2vSmAlg

EXCERPT: “During the 2013-to-2015 period, worst case needs for housing assistance persisted at high levels across demographic groups, household types, and regions. Worst case needs are defined as renters with very low incomes— no more than 50 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI)—who do not receive government housing assistance and who pay more than one-half of their income for rent, live in severely inadequate conditions, or both. Worst Case Housing Needs: 2017 Report to Congress examines the causes of and trends in worst case needs, using the most recent data from the American Housing Survey (AHS).1 Substantial unmet needs for affordable rental housing remain even as incomes are improving. The unmet need for decent, safe, and affordable rental housing continues to outpace the ability of federal, state, and local governments to supply housing assistance and facilitate affordable housing production.” FULLREPORT: http://bit.ly/2uCXic6

EXCERPT: “Each year, the federal government delivers approximately US$8 billion in low-income housing tax credits to housing developers that agree to set aside a certain number of units as rent-controlled affordable housing for qualified tenants. Since it began in 1986, the program has helped create at least 45,905 affordable housing projects with nearly three million units. Some recent research suggests that the affordable housing properties built with the tax credits help to integrate and revitalize otherwise poverty-stricken neighborhoods . . . In a recent report, Rebecca Diamond and Tim McQuade from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business offered new empirical evidence to support the view that the tax-subsidized properties benefit surrounding areas. They found that the projects increased property values, lowered the crime rate and spurred economic and racial integration – as long as the buildings were located in low-income neighborhoods where more than half the population was black or Latino.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2wBAcj6

EXCERPT: “A unique and decades-old law in Minnesota that requires mobile home parks to offer storm shelters or evacuation plans for residents is often not taken seriously and is rarely enforced, a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation shows. Minnesota is the only state in the country with a law like it on the books. It requires mobile home parks built after 1988 to have an adequate storm shelter. Older parks still must have an evacuation plan — approved by the local municipality — for residents to seek shelter off site in the event of severe weather. Despite the law, people living in many of the state’s mobile home parks often have nowhere to hide. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reviewed thousands of pages of mobile home inspection reports from across the state. The investigation found at least 60 violations relating to storm shelters, the lack of shelters or the lack of an approved plan for the residents who live there.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2hDU9CJ

EXCERPT: “As developers try to capitalize on a hot rental market, the city of Richfield is trying to determine how far its authority extends in protecting low-income tenants. After hundreds of low-income renters were displaced from Crossroads Apartments last year, and after a similar scenario was narrowly avoided at another large Richfield apartment complex in April, city leaders gathered last month to assess their options to preserve affordable housing in Richfield. Aeon, a nonprofit organization that buys properties to preserve affordable housing options, signed a purchase agreement in April for the 422-unit Seasons Park Apartments, keeping the property out of the hands of a developer who was thought to have designs on renovating the complex, which would have forced out low-income renters. Shortly after Aeon signed the purchase agreement for Seasons Park, city leaders heard from the Housing Justice Center, which recommended ways to prevent similar close calls for financially vulnerable tenants.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2fmBGcQ

EXCERPT: “The Minneapolis/Saint Paul metropolitan area is a prime example of how strong employment growth is putting a strain on the housing supply available in many U.S. cities. Since 2000, the number of Twin Cities households that face a housing cost burden—defined as spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing—has increased by 25 percent to a total of 199,000 households as of 2015, according to the Metropolitan Council. Minneapolis/Saint Paul now has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States among large cities at 3.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The disconnect between where businesses are expanding and where their employees can afford to live was one of the topics addressed at a recent ULI Minnesota event. ‘You have this need for workers. You have a growing immigrant population that is going to serve part of that need, and you have a growing native-born population that will serve part of that need. What happens if there is not housing to meet the growing needs of the population?’ asked Lisa Sturtevant, senior visiting fellow at ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2vx3Jxg

EXCERPT: “The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released the ‘Reforming the Mortgage Interest Deduction: How Tax Reform Can Help End Homelessness and Housing Poverty’ report . . . calling for Congress and the Trump administration to use mortgage interest deduction (MID) reform to end homelessness and housing poverty in America. The report identifies solutions to the homelessness and affordable housing crisis in America that would incur no additional cost to the federal government, those proposed by the NLIHC-led United for Homes(UFH) campaign. The report and UFH campaign call for modest reforms to the mortgage interest deduction (MID)—a $70 billion tax write-off that primarily benefits higher income households—and for reinvesting the billions in savings in affordable housing for the lowest income families with the greatest needs . . . The report shows that each year the federal government spends almost $200 billion to help Americans buy and rent their homes. Seventy-five percent of these resources goes to subsidize higher income homeowners through the MID and other homeownership tax breaks. In fact, the federal government spends more to help the 7 million households with incomes above $200,000 than to help the 55 million households with incomes below $50,000, even though they are far more likely to struggle to afford a place to live. Many experts from across the ideological spectrum point out that the MID is a poorly targeted and wasteful use of federal resources that encourage households to take on higher levels of debt, fails to promote homeownership, disrupts the housing market by inflating housing costs, and mostly benefits higher income households who do not need federal assistance to live in stable homes. Many economists have called for eliminating the MID altogether.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2uWRFE1